Secret life of a townie

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Stevie is real!

If you've read The Phoenix Project books you are familiar with Stevie, Andie and Lina's pet dog.

But did you know, Stevie's character is based on a real, live dog?

Our own dog, Stevie!

She's a Shepadoodle

(that's German Shepard and Standard Poodle mix)

She's just as loyal and protective as she is in the book!

We LOVE Stevie!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Sunday, September 29, 2013

So this past weekend I was on vacation, which meant barely any writing/working on books (very hard to do!). I also had a hard time reading out in the wilderness. I only read one book last week. Usually I read 3.

So after a week of camping in the wilderness the only way to further distract ourselves from work was to go to Redbox and gorge ourselves on all the latest movies we've been too busy to see.

Star Trek: Into Darkness
-This brought on a lot of reminiscing. We interrupted the movie to talk about how we used to watch Star Trek every evening as kids. There was lots of action, a little love, and some crazy science (Khan's blood can do what!)

Oblivion
-To be perfectly honest, I was nervous that this movie was going to be a total flop. Some of the reviews weren't the greatest. And I have to admit, within the first twenty minutes I was distinctly reminded of the movie Wall-E... And Tom Cruise was Wall-E. He even watered a little plant and had a collection of trinkets. And then I made a bet with the husband at the halfway point. I told him, "I bet this is going to be a mashup of Wall-E, Moon, and the Matrix." And you know what? It kinda was. But! It was still pretty good. However I felt like there were a few loose ends, like where the hell did the Tet come from and where was Earth's water getting sent to...

World War Z
-As you all know from my previous posts I am a lover of zombies and I've been waiting to see this movie since I read it was being produced. Did you read the book? I did. And guess what... The movie is nothing like the book... It's BETTER! Loved World War Z the film. Loved World War Z the book. Probably shouldn't have let my seven-year old wander the house while this was on, she'll probably never sleep tonight. And my husband kept complaining about Brad Pitt's hair, he said Brad has girl hair in this movie. I didn't mind. I think he did a great job.

Looper
-You ever watch previews for a movie and expect one thing, then watch the movie and get something totally different? Well, that's what happened when I watched Looper. It was a pleasant surprise. The acting is great. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's face was freaking me out a bit, he barely looked like himself. But this was good. I was expecting some chasing, some violence, and a little time-travel. What I got was a grand helping of humanity and sacrifice from the characters. Watch this, it's worth the two hours.